CHARTS BY GLENN LEDREW 27
SKYNEWS • MAR/APR 2020Venus shines with
greatest brilliancy
By the end of April, Venus is well into the descend-
ing portion of its springtime appearance, drop-
ping lower each night to disappear from view as it
passes between Earth and the Sun on June 3.
Venus peaks in brightness on April 27 at an
amazing magnitude -4.7. While Venus is waning
in phase, the drop in brightness as it thins to a
crescent is more than ofset by the increase in its
disk size as it rounds its orbit and approaches us.
April 27 marks the planet’s point of greatest illu-
minated extent — meaning the area of Venus lit
by the Sun that we can see reaches a maximum —
producing the peak in Venus’ brilliance.
Examine Venus at this time through a telescope,
and you’ll see it as tiny crescent planet. he
night before, on April 26, the crescent Moon
appears about a binocular ield away from Venus, in a phase thinner
than – but similar to – the phase of Venus, which should be apparent
even in binoculars. •DATE:
April 14 to 16TYPE:
ConjunctionsTIME:
DawnVIEW:
BinocularsThe Moon passes
a planet trio
A month after its March grouping with Mars, Jupiter
and Saturn, the waning Moon is back to join the
morning planet trio. By mid-April, the planets
spread out along a line visibly deining the ecliptic,
low in the southeast at dawn.he orbit of the Moon is tipped ive degrees of the
ecliptic plane, a tilt that makes it travel well below
the line of planets on mid-April mornings in 2020.
he waning Moon lies six degrees below Jupiter on
April 14, three degrees below Saturn on April 15,
and four degrees below Mars on April 16.DATE:
Monday, April 27
TYPE:
Maximum brightnessTIME:
EveningVIEW:
Naked eye